"It is quite possible - overwhelmingly probable, one might guess -
that we will always learn
more about human
life and human personality from novels than from scientific psychology."
NOAM CHOMSKY Language
& Problems of Knowledge

The
draft mental health bill containing proposals to change the 1983 Mental
Health Act was issued for consultation, 25 June-16 September 2002......In July
2001,
the
Government's proposals (in the White Paper) to change 1983 Mental Health Act were rejected in
the debate at the Maudsley Hospital
10th Maudsley Debate - Thursday 5 July 2001 6-7.30pm. Refreshments
from 5.30pm.
MENTAL HEALTH LAW REFORM?Motion: "This house welcomes the implementation of
the Government White Paper on Mental Health" A
discussion on whether the new Government White Paper on Mental Health
heralds an improvement or deterioration in the treatment offered to
people with mental health problems. Given that the care received
by those with psychiatric problems in England is already inferior in
quality, and more authoritarian in approach, than in comparable European
countries, this is a most important question.
Robin Murray, Prof of Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry at The
MaudsleyFOR - Tony Maden, Prof of Forensic Psychiatry, Imperial College LondonChris Burford, Consultant General & Community Psychiatrist,
St Ann's Hospital, Tottenham
AGAINST -Andrew Johns, Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist, South London and
Maudsley NHS TrustPaul Bowen - Barrister, Doughty St Chambers, London
Discussion Chaired by Tom Fahy, Professor of Forensic Mental
Health, GKT School of Medicine

The
motion was defeated by 112 votes to 2.Personal review by Danny
Sullivan:
The 10th Maudsley Debate was held on Thursday July 5th 2001 on the topic
of mental health law reform. A lively audience of service users,
psychiatrists, and health care professionals including the President of
the Royal College of Psychiatrists attended the debate, which was
chaired by Professor Tom Fahy. Before hearing the arguments of the
speakers only 2% of the audience supported the motion and the
implementation of the Government White Paper on Mental Health with 61%
opposed and a substantial 37% undecided.

Professor Tony Maden of Imperial College opened the debate arguing
for the motion. He put forward that the Mental Health White Paper
ensured that 'difficult' patients received treatment rather than
punishment, and that the government's interest in public protection was
valid.

Paul Bowen, a barrister of Doughty St Chambers, opposed this,
pointing out that the White Paper severely constrained liberty, expanded
the class of people subject to coercion, and breached the Human Rights
Act.

Next Dr Chris Burford, a consultant at St Ann's Hospital, Tottenham,
supported Professor Maden and the motion. He spoke of changes in
psychiatry and the difficulties of 'revolving door' admissions; he
suggested that the White Paper provided a framework for treating
vulnerable people who otherwise missed or evaded treatment.

Finally, Dr Andrew Johns a consultant of forensic psychiatry at the
South London and Maudsley NHS Trust, concluded by noting that the White
Paper coerced both patients and psychiatrists. He rounded up the debate
by reiterating the estimation that 5000 patients would require detention
in order to prevent a single homicide by a person with a mental
disorder.

After comments and questions from the floor the audience was able to
vote on the motion again. It turned out that still only 1.5% supported
the implementation of the White Paper. However the number of those
opposed had increased to 90%. The speakers opposing the motion had
evidently convinced the majority of those undecided before the debate,
whose number dropped to a mere 8.5%.
End of report by Danny Sullivan. This report is on the Institute
of Psychiatry website:

DEMONSTRATION OF DISABLED PEOPLE
AGAINST THE NEW BENEFIT PROPOSALS
MONDAY 16TH JULY 2001
outside Houses of Parliament

The following is the press release from DAN(Disability
Action Network) for the demonstration:

The
government is once again attacking disabled people forcing yet another layer of bureaucracy on
us. It is also accusing disabled people in receipt of
benefit of stealing £7billion from the
treasury. We challenge Alistair Darling to say what
he would do with the £5billion he proposes to save.

DAN
(Direct Action Network for disabled people) is calling for an end to
this old style bashing of the most vulnerable and socially excluded in
our society and wants the government to open up real dialogue with the
movement about how to remove the real barriers to work for disabled
people.

THE REAL BARRIERS.

1. END CHARGING

Charging working disabled people for services that put them on a level
playing field creates inequality in the workplace acting as a
disincentive to work.

2. NO POST CODE SERVICE

Disabled people are prevented from moving to another area to find work
because they have to be reassessed all over again by a new Local
Authority. This can take years before they can construct a care package
that supports them in employment. The government could save money and
time if disabled people could move their care packages from on local
authority to another.

3. NO MEANS TESTED BENEFITS

Benefits are supposed to meet the extra costs of being a disabled person
in a society that doesn't fully address their right to participate. By
means testing these benefits the governments provides a poverty trap,
which for some people is too deep to get out.

4. ASSESS SOCIETY NOT US

The government should make a commitment to assess its progress in making
society inclusive to disabled people rather that blaming and reassessing
us. We call for a national audit on progress made. Given the national
shortage of doctors in the National Health Service why waste Doctors
time in this fruitless, uneconomic, resource draining assessment.

LET US KNOW THAT YOU'RE COMING!

It helps us to know how many people are coming to support this
demonstration but also if you can't come that we have your and your
organisation's support.

I have created Mental Magazineuk
because I believe we need an open forum that deals with every aspect of health and social
care and allows free discussion and information sharing between people with different
perspectives and experience. All the issues in Mental Magazineukare discussed on the Yahoo! Noticeboard & Discussion Group attached to this site.
You can read the all the messages currently on the board without
signing up as a member of the board. Join the group if you would
like to contribute and/or receive all messages sent to the board
automatically in your personal email inbox.

I am Rosemary Moore and I live in Surrey,
England. Since my motherís death in a mental hospital 19 years ago I have seen an
increasing deterioration in services for vulnerable people in hospitals and in the
community, to the extent that services scarcely exist and what is provided often
creates and exacerbates mental and physical problems.

The same shortcomings in the mental health
services that led to my motherís death continue. One of the most serious is the
practice of distancing relatives and friends from the patient so that there is no one
independent of the statutory services to advocate for the patient.

At the time of my motherís death, my
brother was a detained patient in the same psychiatric unit. >From the age of 21, over 30
years ago, he has been treated (with medication) for Schizophrenia. And, in 1987 - after
jumping out of a hostel window in Putney - he became paralysed from the waist down. I have
continued (unsuccessfully) to try to see that he receives appropriate care from the
statutory services and, since 1994, I have also tried to help our sister who suffered a
mental breakdown. In June 2002 my sister was admitted to this
same psychiatric unit, her last admission being six years ago,
which has confirmed the escalating deterioration in services. The
increasing amount of self-harm, suicide and violent incidents are dealt
with either by indifference or damage limitation exercises.

At the moment - like many other friends and
relatives of patients - I am providing, as best I can, the care and attention that should
be available from the statutory services - and most of the time I am in conflict with the
statutory services - which leaves my relatives totally dependent on me. If I were unable
to look after them and fight for their rights, they would be at the mercy of a
dysfunctional care system. My aim is to see the statutory services improve so that my
relatives and all vulnerable people are able to live safely and happily within their
communities, receiving appropriate help, as of right.

The Man in the White SuitI have chosen this as the logo for Mental Magazineukbecause the story behind this
image shows that it is very often vested interests that prevent progress. The figure of
the man in the white suit is taken from the poster advertising the1951 Ealing comedy of
this name. The film starred (Sir) Alec Guinness as a chemist, Sidney Stratton, who thinks
he has discovered a formula for an indestructible fibre and has a white suit made from the
material. The bosses of the textile industry try their best to suppress the formula as do
the factory workers and others who think they would be affected - such as an old
washerwoman who says, mournfully, to Sidney: "Why canít you leave things
aloneÖwhatís going to happen to me and my bit of washing now?" But the
film ends happily - it turns out that the formula is flawed and as Sidney, in his luminous
white suit, is cornered by the mob pursuing him, the suit starts to disintegrate and
Sidney is left standing in his shirt and underpants. There is laughter and the mob
disperses.

One such "white suit" is Guardianship in the
1983 Mental Health Act, which runs through the entire Act and can be used for any mentally
disordered patient at any time, whether in hospital or not. It also places a legal
responsibility on an individual and/or social services department to see that the patient
receives appropriate assessment and care at all times.

Over the years there have been many attempts to destroy this
power - particularly by the Mental Health Act Commission with the recommendation to
"beef it up" by attaching an additional power to "treat" patients in
the community. This would have turned Guardianship into what was proposed by the
White Paper issued just before Christmas 2000 - an order enabling the statutory services
to forcibly medicate patients outside a hospital. (NB: a public
debate held at the Maudsley Hospital on 5 July, rejected the White Paper
proposals for changes to the 1983 Mental Health Act by 112 votes to 2 - more
details...)

Although Guardianship has survived in its original
form in the current mental health act, there
has been a uniform reluctance to use it (usually on the grounds that it is
"toothless") from social services departments, doctors, hospital managers, and
mental health tribunals. There has been a similar resistance from the legal profession,
professional bodies and mental health charities and the Mental Health Act Commission.
Guardianship which safeguards any patient inside or out of an
institution - will be scrapped in the proposed new mental
health legislation.
Go to the Mental Health Law page to read the truth
about the 1983 Mental Health Act.....

The draft Bill with the proposals for a Mental Health Act to replace
the current Act was issued by the government in June 2002 and was open to consultation until 16
September 2002. More...

Rosemary Moore, July 2001
updated July 2002

Bettina Moore (RIP)I launched this website on 18 December 2000 in memory of my late mother,
Bettina Moore, who died just three days before her 65th birthday. She had suffered a
nervous breakdown three and half years previously, and spent the rest of her life in and
out of our local psychiatric units. On 15 December 1984 she threw herself down the fire
escape stairs of the Abraham Cowley Unit,Chertsey,
Surrey, and died very soon afterwards from multiple injuries. This website is dedicated to
her, in remembrance of her life and work and in thanks for the inspiration she gives
me. I know she would be very pleased to be remembered and to know that her story would be
helping other people. My mother's page is still in
preparation. In the meantime, you can read one of her poems - "Irrefutable
Truth" on the MMuk message board.
A "Friends
Remembered" discussion board was set up on 14 September 2002
(the day of the march protesting against the government's plans to bring
in new legislation) to commemorate those we have lost in the mental
health system.
My mother's name was among those that appeared on a banner prepared by
Symon Price, displayed at the Mental Health Alliance lobby of Parliament
on 23 October 2002.

Rosemary Moore, July 2001
updated December 2002

Ann OíNeill (RIP)I never met Ann but when I joined the ukSurvivors discussion
board in June 2000, I saw earlier messages of condolence about Ann, who had been a contributor to the
board.
Ann was a qualified nurse whose employers would not allow
her to continue to work as a nurse because of mental health problems. She had many serious
complaints about what happened to her in hospital, appeared to have very little support in
the community, and was extremely fearful of the threatened legislation which would force
some patients to be medicated "in the community". It is clear from reading
Annís messages to the board that she was desperately looking for help; it is equally
clear that apart from genuine concern and liking for Ann, the others on the board were at
a loss what to do both when Ann was writing messages to the board and after her death. As
with my motherís death, Annís suicide was the result of common failings in the
care system, and in Annís case the failure of the so-called "user movement"
to give any realistic help. The ukSurvivors discussion board is the best known UK
"user" outlet on the Net. The
membership includes a high proportion of people who actively promote the "user"
message of empowerment and patient autonomy. Many of the contributors are employed either
directly or indirectly by statutory authorities or one of the large charities or earn
their livings as "user consultants". Two are Mental Health Act Commissioners.
Ann's first
message to the ukSurvivors message board was on 1 March
2000. On 24 May 2000, Tina Coldham posted a
message telling the members that Ann had committed suicide two weeks
earlier.Ann OíNeill is one of so many people who, through no fault
of their own, live in terror and misery, and die needlessly. Ann and the many others like
her must not be forgotten. I believe that Ann's fears about the threat of
compulsory medication in the community were groundless. Read why on the mental
health law page.
A "Friends
Remembered" discussion board was set up on 14 September 2002
(the day of the march protesting against the government's plans to bring
in new legislation) to commemorate those we have lost in the mental
health system.
Ann's name was among those that appeared on a banner prepared by Symon
Price, displayed at the lobby of Parliament on 23 October
2002.

Rosemary Moore, July 2001
updated December 2002

Janet Cresswell in Broadmoor

After spending 27 years in Broadmoor,
Crowthorne, Berkshire - a high security mental hospital - on
Tuesday 8 July 2003 Janet Cresswell was transferred to Thornford
Park, a medium secure mental hospital, also in Berkshire.
Janet was 45 when she was sent to Broadmoor, she is now 72.

On 9 June 2002, the Independent on Sunday
newspaper started a mental health campaign focussing on the proposed
changes to the Mental Health Act. Janet was featured in its
first story and she has been referred to frequently in subsequent
stories.

(This also tied in with a programme broadcast on
UK Channel 5 on 23 July 2002 which also featured Janet. See "INSIDE
BROADMOOR"messageon mentalmagazine
discussion board for more details.)

Feature on Janet Cresswell, 16 June: http://www.independent.co.uk/story.jsp?story=305773The article refers to
information on this website but does not mention Mental Magazine uk
itself.
For background about Janet Cresswell, read THIS page, go to archives
(messages) on the mentalmagazine discussion board and look in the Files
section of the mentalmagazine discussion board for more articles by and
about Janet Cresswell. Read Janet's acclaimed play "The One-Sided Wall" performed in London's Bush Theatre in 1989 and the
interview with Janet in the London Evening
Standard that explains how the play came to be written.

Writer and performer Nikki Johnson contacted
Janet after seeing an article in The Sunday Times in
1987, and together
they wrote "The One-Sided Wall" which is the story of how
Janet came to be in Broadmoor and has stayed there.

There is no evidence that Janet is suffering
from any form of mental disorder - and in an ITV This
Week programme broadcast in 1991 about the
inappropriate detention of many women in two of the Special Hospitals -
Broadmoor and Ashworth - called "Insane Justice". Dr Chandra
Ghosh said of Janet: "It's very difficult to decide why she was put
in a hospital and in fact what psychiatric help she could have been
offered. It's obvious that she hasn't been offered any help.
All we've done is actually locked her up." The programme also
stated that a Mental Health Review Tribunal had said she must leave the
hospital nearly four years previously.

Nevertheless, the hospital
wrote telling me that Janet is suffering from "classic
symptoms of a major mental illness"

Although I have known about Janet Cresswell since 1987
when - I read the Sunday Times article, I only contacted her in May 2000 after seeing her name published
in the Department of Health November 1999 Report of the Expert Committee into the Review
of the Mental Health Act 1983. Janet was listed as one of the people who had submitted
comments about the proposed reforms. (See Maudsley
debate on 5 July 2001 and News about the
consultation on government proposals in the Draft Bill.)

I have visited Janet many times in
Broadmoor and have a large number of letters from her mostly
handwritten, as well as the stories and articles I have published on the
net. Since May
2000 I have been
corresponding with her doctor, the hospital authorities, the Home Office, her MP Glenda
Jackson and another MP who is on the Health Select Committee, Eileen Gordon, and the
Mental Health Act Commission. In May 2001, I had a personal
meeting with Janet's Responsible Medical Officer (RMO) and have also
visited the ward she is on and talked to the staff there.

(Before I set up this website) on 7 September 2000, I sent a message
about Janet to five Internet mental health discussion boards. You can
see this - the first message - and other messages
about and from Janet on the
MMuk
discussion board. You can also find
the "user
survey" she conducted from within Broadmoor in 1993 and other
stories and articles in the Files
section of the noticeboard. These include "What's
New?" her thoughts on the proposed changes to the 1983 Mental
Health Act - in her view all the new legislation will achieve is to
remove the necessity for clinicians to invent a mental disorder to
warrant detention.

Janet is detained under the 1983
Mental Health Act and is therefore being held illegally since the
authorities can provide no information to substantiate that she is either a danger to the
general public nor that she is suffering from any form of mental
disorder.

The misapplication of the 1983 Mental Health
Act is, in my opinion, why our mental health services are so
appalling. You can read more on the page dealing with mental
health law and policies.

The following article is reproduced from the Sunday Times colour
supplement of March 1987 - "A Day in the Life
of...." This feature still appears and is always
the last page of the magazine.)
Like me, writer and performer Nikki Johnson read and kept this story
and contacted Janet. They went on to write "The
One Sided Wall".

The story reproduced below was written by Janet Cresswell
who at the time of the article had been already been an inmate of Broadmoor for 10 years,
having been sent there in 1976 at the age of 45. This article is
to be repubished by The Sunday Times in September 2003, one of a few
selected from the many pieces published over the years. The
reason it came to be written is that Janet read "A Life in the
Day of Delia Smith" (the tv cookery guru) and thought her life
was more interesting!

Janet
Cresswell, sent to Broadmoor 10 years ago, describes what its like to be an inmate

A LIFE IN
THE DAY OF
Janet Cresswell

Janet Cresswell, 55, was sent to Broadmoor 10 years ago
for wounding a psychiatrist in protest at authorities' refusal to investigate the cause of
her psychiatric problems. She was born in Bushey, Herts and went to Watford Grammar. She
worked as a secretary and married an architect In 1956, but divorced seven years later;
they have one daughter

The doors open
and the lights go on at 7am. I don't get up then but wait for those who want a fag (they
have to be washed and dressed to warrant a light) to get out of the way in the wash room.
I could never understand the point of getting up at all if there was nothing useful to do,
but those at Broadmoor feel differently. I bless my neurotic mother whose cigarette
cravings made me a non-smoker since the age of seven.

After breakfast
at eight my friend and I play Scrabble: it helps pass boredom time while medication is
dispensed. Another friend goes through the Times and Telegraph crosswords
and passes them over when she's finished. It puzzles me that there is so little outcry
against psychiatric medicines - I have needed three gynae operations to counteract the
drugs I was forced to have some years ago. What a funny National Health Service it is that
pays money for having babies in an overcrowded society, gives free heart transplants, sex
changes and psychiatry, but charges at a premium for dentistry and glasses.

When 'All work
areas and school' is called over the Tannoy we assemble until our escorts are ready and
the nurse on radio control has signaled we can move. Chaos reigns until we are at work. I
am in the sewing room, but not because I can sew. When I am not employed replacing buttons
for kitchen overalls or turning up nurses' uniforms, I perform some other form of
handiwork acceptable to the institution. Before I came to Broadmoor, for stabbing a
psychiatrist in the backside, I regarded myself as useless at handiwork. After 10 years I
still feel I am useless at it but now accept that Broadmoor does not want me to do
anything I am good at.

After lunch I
make a pot of tea for the ward and sometimes get a reprimand for giving some to the old
ladies who reside in the dormitory. They wee improperly but I think it is cruel to deprive
them of a hot drink on that account. Time passes quickly here although there is little to
show for it. The pace of nothing consists of a round of social and games events which take
precedence over work, last on the list of priorities after visits to the hairdresser's,
private visits, school, group therapy and anything else that can be conjured up. The
summer is more regimented than the winter as we are made to go en masse into the
garden, often for hours on end, with nothing to do. Security is so paranoid that even
knitting is prohibited there. Rainy summers, therefore, are not unpopular with many.

Once a fortnight,
we women are driven to revolution point when volunteer men come over for a chat. This is
called a games evening, and the women have to attend - even those in bath chairs. This is
one of the few forced social events and a case for women's liberation. However, as the
issue is a trivial example of arrogance towards human rights, we do not complain too
bitterly. Most of us realize that the social functions are more to justify staff
employment than entertain us.

I don't believe
in religion, but was surprised that one visitor, whose aim was a spiritual world and
getting me out of Broadmoor, was banned from seeing me. Frankly, I can think of nothing
worse than a spiritual world, except a medical one, but my visitor was of the opinion that
if I could believe in something then some group would get interested in me and get me out.
He felt that individuals did not have a chance. One or two friends did make approaches to
the Home Office. I didn't think I would be in Broadmoor 10 years and am resigned to never
having justice at all.

We have mounds of
official visitors round from various parts of the empire. Guessing who they are is a game
that has palled with such repetition. The police bound in like football teams, magistrates
look tweedily well-dressed, health visitors clean and well-spoken, social workers and
psychiatric nurses are usually a mixed, scruffy bunch, frequently clutching plastic bags
as though on an outing to Brighton, while doctors, MPs and reps from the Home Office and
DHSS are shown round in small parties escorted by what is termed 'the hierarchy'. One
wonders what they have come to see.

One day there
were 20 social workers from Hackney - I can recall no business firm which can manage with
so many of its personnel missing on a day's outing. Last week there were four different
parties here, including a batch of Japanese, complete with cameras and an interpreter. I
wondered aloud if they were here to boost the British tourist industry and one patient
rushed up to them to ask who they were. 'Doctors' was the reply.

Mug shots are
renewed each time we change hairstyle, or every five years. One woman was recently
photographed in each of her five wigs, but my hair grows so quickly that I merely have
mine taken at the statutory time. So determined am I to conform to Broadmoor's description
of me that I make myself look as awful as possible without actually drawing attention to
myself. I screw up my nose ever so slightly and lift one side of my mouth to produce a
sort of hare-lip effect. l am quite convinced that, in the event of my escape, my blown-up
picture would precipitate the most anti member of the public to co-operate with the
police.

One recent
escapee, a friend from the room next door whom I miss enormously, has a gentle face and
her photo on television gave the reverse impression of the description given of her.
Looking far more manic, the MP who appeared on BBC raved that killers should not be
allowed on outings from Broadmoor. I quite agree with him, but realize his definition of
who is a danger to the general public is somewhat exaggerated. My friend hopped off from
an outing when reaching the underwear section of Marks & Spencer. While the police
were looking for her I wondered if she was having breakfast at Fortnum's. The question of
outings is a tricky one, the policy of mixing hard-luck cases with the hardened ones is
difficult to explain.

The notice board
in the corridor has inherited one more bit of paper, this time the tennis draw for the
female wing. We've not played tennis for years and the sudden enthusiasm is difficult to
fathom. The fellow who has arranged the draw has made three to appear in the finals -
perhaps he is changing the game to pig in the middle.

The library van
comes over (from the male side) once a fortnight - it has been out of action for some
weeks - and books on prison life are well read. Charriere's Papillon and Ranco remind
us that Devil's Island has been closed as a penal colony and things here could be worse.
Solzy-whatshisname's Gulag and similar amaze me - how did he maintain that writing
style through thousands of pages? How similar are the thoughts of prisoners east and west.
I have just finished a book sent to me from the States which compares psychiatry under
Hitler and in America today. It's interesting reading and I wonder who I dare lend it to.

I pass the time
playing cards, reading, knitting and so on. I am rarely sad to get locked up again at 9pm.
I don't have night sedation, issued just beforehand. I have a clear conscience and mostly
the only things that keep me awake are the floodlighting the builders have erected outside
and also the flashing of the nurses' torches and their heavy foot-steps as they come round
on their night inspection.

(c) Times Newspapers
Ltd, 1987.

Joseph Heller (RIP) & Catch-22When Heller died, from natural causes in 1999, I felt as my brother did
about Princess Di Ė now Iíll never meet him! I first read his novel when I was
about 19 and thought then it was one of the best books Iíd ever read. Later, when I
became involved with mental health campaigning through trying to help my relatives, I saw
the novel as explaining exactly the dilemmas of the treatment and care of the mentally ill
in westernised society. Throughout the novel there is a theme of questioning what
sanity/insanity is, and one passage in particular defines the "catch-22" of
mental illness. That is: you canít be treated for mental illness unless you ask for
help yourself (someone else canít ask for you) but if you say youíre ill,
youíre not, youíre swinging the lead! There are variations of this but it all
leads down the same road Ė help is only given conditionally and the conditions are
set by the givers. The person needing help - and anyone trying to advocate for them eg
relatives and friends - are always put at a disadvantage by a "catch-22". Of
course the other catch is that mental illness is sometimes used as a get out
or a means to obtain advantage - some people, like Yossarian, areusing
mental illness as an excuse. But then everyone gets tarred with the same brush.

This is the passage from the novel, about bombardier
Yossarianís attempts to get himself out of having to fly combat missions, which he
could do if he was deemed crazy. But he had to ask to be grounded himself and say it was
because he was crazy - so he couldnít beÖYossarian, asks the doctor:
(For more go to the Catch-22
Fan Page.)

"You mean thereís a catch?"

"Sure thereís a
catch," Doc Daneeka replied. "Catch-22. Anyone who wants to get out of combat
duty isnít really crazy."

There was only one catch and that was
Catch-22, which specified that concern for oneís own safety in the face of dangers
that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could
be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy
and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if
he didnít, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and
didnít have to; but if he didnít want to he was sane and had to. Yossarian was
moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a
respectful whistle.

Noam ChomskyNoam Chomsky is an American Professor of Linguistics who also writes and
lectures on US domestic and foreign policy. As far as I know, he doesnít comment
specifically on health and social care but his basic message is about human rights and is,
I think, entirely relevant to health and social care. For example, taken from Chronicles
of Dissent, interviews with Noam Chomsky by David Barsamian (1992 AK Press, Stirling
Scotland) Chomsky says:

"Any form of authority requires justification; itís not self
justified."

Chomsky also says in Language
& Problems of Knowledge:"It is quite possible - overwhelmingly probable, on might
guess - that we will always learn more about human life and human
personality from novels than from scientific psychology"

Go also to the MMuk
discussion
board for several messages that include Noam Chomsky's opinions on
the 11 September tragedy. (You will find these messages by
entering "Noam Chomsky" in the Search box.)

October 2001

Tim Berners-Lee & the World Wide WebThanks to the humane and unselfish inventors and developers of the Web and
Internet, we now have an incredibly effective and democratic way of accessing and
disseminating information. A vast amount of information is easily accessible and email
makes it possible to communicate almost instantaneously across the globe, with as many
people as one would wish, for the cost of a local phone call. There is enormous potential
to use the medium of the Web to establish genuine consensus on universally shared
concerns. Yet from what I have seen as a member of various health and social care
discussion groups (like the one attached to this site) most people communicate in
"cyber ghettos" - selectively and conservatively within self-defined parameters.
Hopefully that will change in time.

Tim Berners-Lee has made the democratic dissemination of
information possible. The only tribute that can be paid to him is to acknowledge that.
Here is an article from The Sun, August 16 2000 that rightly says - this is the man
who changed the world forever.

A book has just been published about Tim Berners-Lee - How the Web Was Born by James Gillies and Robert Cailliau (Oxford Paperbacks £8.99)
How the Englishman Tim Berners-Lee wrote the programs thatrun the world
wide web, and why he gave them away.

Rosemary Moore, July 2001

By EMMA SHRIMSLEY
The Sun 16/8/00

Day the wwworld changed forever

You
may not have heard of Tim Berners-Lee. But ten years ago he changed the world.

Tim is the unsung hero who invented the world
wide web. In the decade since the launch of his global communication system, tens of
thousands of businessmen have used it to become millionaires. But amazingly, Tim has
made hardly a penny himself. The London-born physicist was a software engineer at
Cern, a laboratory in Geneva that investigates the tiniest particles of matter, where he
dreamed up the Web.

Modest

He proposed a system that would link
documents across the Internet, allowing people to share knowledge. Tim wanted it to be
free, open and global. He has fought to ensure the Web is never privately owned. No caviar
or Porsches for Tim, 45. who now lives In Boston, Massachusetts, with American wife Nancy
and their two young children. He drives a 17-year-old VW Golf and earns a modest academic
salary as head of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which tries to set and maintain
technical standards on the Net.

Born in East Sheen, South West London, Tim
was introduced to computers at an early age. His parents, Conway and Mary, worked on the
first commercially-built computer, the Farranti Mark 1.

Derek Pennell, his Physics teacher at
Emmanuel School, Wandsworth, remembers Tim as one of his best pupils ever.

Tim built a computer himself when he went
on to Queen's College,. It was a crude contraption of spare parts and an old TV set, but
it was a labour of love. After, graduating with a first class degree in theoretical
physics, Tim started work as a software engineer.

He took a six-month contract at Cern in
1980 where he created hypertext a principle fundamental to the way the Web would work.

He wrote some software called Enquire
which enabled him to highlight words in one document which would then direct him to other
documents. Tim did not take the idea any further until after he returned to Cern in 1984
after a break on other jobs. He realised that everyone could benefit from his way of
organising and sharing knowledge.

And so. in 1989, Tim sat down at his
computer and polished up his Big Idea.

In his own words, his plan was for
"all the Information stored on computers everywhere to be linked - a global
Information space."

Silly

Naming his creation was no easy task.
Informesh? No that sounded too much like Info-MESS. The Information Mine? No, the
Initials spelt TIM and that seemed big-headed. He settled on World Wide Web - WWW
for short. Pals told him it was a silly name because WWW takes longer to say than World
Wide Web. But World Wide Web it stayed and Tim went public with it. As his project spread
across the Internet like wildfire, he changed the lives of people everywhere.

In less than a decade the World Wide Web
has grown to more than a billion pages on just about everything.